In The Darkness, They Lay In Wait
by ClaireBear1982
Summary: Marlene and Benjy are on a mission for the Order.


A/N: QLFC. Captain of The Wimbourne Wasps. Round 4. Prompt: Surprise[Forbidden: Surprise].

Surprise:

Verb: lie in wait; attack.

"So, does everyone know what they're doing?" asked Moody of the assembled party before him.

Everyone nodded their assent and broke up into their groups to discuss tactics. All except Marlene. Lily, who'd been watching her closely, walked towards her, indicating to her group that she'd be back momentarily.

"Alright, Mar?" Lily asked her best friend.

Marlene nodded, a tight smile on her face.

Lily observed the girl standing before her; her face was a mixture of colours: off-white and grey. She had black circles around her blue eyes and her normally well-groomed blonde hair was merely pulled back in a messy bun. The clothes she wore were creased and crumpled as if she had been wearing, and possibly sleeping, in them for a few days.

"What? Stop staring at me!" snapped Marlene.

"I wasn't staring!" replied Lily carefully.

"Then why are you being so defensive if you weren't staring?" countered Marlene in an argumentative tone.

"I'm not being defensive. I wasn't staring, per se. I was observing. Also, I'm not getting into this now; I can see you're spoiling for a fight," hissed Lily sharply.

Turning on her heel, Lily stalked away. She couldn't do this now. She had enough on her mind, and a fight with her best friend was the last thing she needed before she headed out on the mission. She needed to be able to focus and get on with the job at hand without her brain mulling over the words they'd likely have had exchanged.

Sinking into the seat to her left, Marlene allowed her head to fall into her hands, the heel of her palms pushing into her eyes. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She willed them not to fall, but fall they did.

She hadn't meant to snap at Lily. In her heart, she knew the girl was only looking out for her, like so many times in the past, but she was so desperately tired. All she wanted to do was sleep around the clock for the next month. Slumber currently wasn't her friend. For many nights now it had evaded her. Every time she tried to rest the same reoccurring nightmare would stalk her dreams.

She would see Benjy being blasted apart. The horrible thing was that the Order had only managed to find little pieces of him. Benjy and she hadn't been expecting an attack from some of Lord Voldemort's supporters. They hadn't even been Death Eaters, which was the worst part about it. They'd merely been thugs; sympathizers to the cause.

 _"Where the hell did these guys come from?" Benjy asked as he threw himself behind a heating duct._

 _"I don't know, but they sure as hell were expecting us," Marlene yelled back as she threw herself down beside him._

 _A pair of rough, strong hands grabbed them both by the backs of their robes and hauled them over the heating duct. They let out a yell of shock at being so roughly man-handled. Benjy even dropped his wand, he was so startled._

 _"Who are you?" a voice from the shadows asked of the duo._

 _They both remained silent, which only fuelled to incense the apparent leader of this quintet. The man that had grabbed them shook them by their robes._

 _"I asked, who are you?"_

 _Again, neither replied._

 _A man pushed himself off the side of the wall that covered the stairwell and stepped from the shadows into the moonlight. He was an average looking man with a filthy mop of blonde hair. His voice was like ice: cold and clear._

 _"I won't ask you again. If you do not tell me who you are, I will have my friend here drop you both over the edge of the building."_

 _"Do it then! You'll get nothing from us!" spat Benjy._

 _"No, Benjy! We'll tell you, we'll tell you," cried Marlene. "We were looking for somewhere to be alone!"_

 _"You're lying!"_

 _"I'm not, oh I'm not, I swear," Marlene pretended to sob. "We Apparated too far East, we were meant to land on that rooftop over there. The one with table and chairs!"_

 _This ploy made them all turn to look. As they did so, Marlene kicked at the man-mountain holding her and Benjy. A well placed shot caught him in the knackers and he let them both go as he hissed with pain, his hands cupping his injured privates._

 _"Bitch!" he hissed._

 _Marlene shot a stunning spell at the man and he collapsed in a heap. All hell broke loose. Spells came from every direction, some narrowly missing both Marlene and Benjy by inches. They ducked and weaved as spell after spell was fired at them. Marlene managed to kill two of the attackers, which seemed to unnerve the other three that had scurried out of the shadows as soon as the spell fire had begun. Benjy had yet to retrieve his wand and Marlene was doing her best to protect him._

 _She needed to move the fight from this side of the rooftop, back towards where the heating duct stood. She couldn't even 'Accio' Benjy's wand. If she was distracted for even a moment she knew it would be game over for them both._

 _The moment came and Marlene was able to slowly back up. Soon Benjy was close enough to jump over the duct and grab his wand so he could rejoin the spell fight. But as he stood up, a blasting curse, that Marlene dodged, glanced off of the side of the duct and hit Benjy right in the chest. The force of the curse blew Benjy into a million little pieces._

 _For a moment, the montage froze and they all watched as Benjy's body disappeared out of sight._

 _Marlene went berserk. She fired off three 'Avada Kedarvas' in quick succession, her anger giving her perfect aim. Marlene let out a sob. She sank to her knees, her heart-wrenching cries breaking the silence of the night._

 _After that, everything was a blur. She must have managed to send a Patronus messenger, because, within minutes, she was surrounded by The Order. It had taken her days to even be able to be debriefed.  
_  
Marlene felt heavy hands land on her shoulders. She lifted her head to find Sirius crouched in front of her.

"It wasn't your fault, Mar," said Sirius softly.

"Then why do I feel like shit?" asked Marlene, her voice laced with heaviness.

"Survivors guilt. If you hadn't dodged that blasting curse it would be you we'd be mourning. In every war there are good, upright people killed every day."

"I still think we have a traitor in our ranks. They were laying in wait for us, waiting to attack us! Waiting for us to arrive, Sirius."

Sirius just grimaced. He had the same suspicion. He knew Dumbledore also had it. He pulled Marlene into a hug and just held her. Her body convulsed with sobs as her heart shattered into a million pieces all over again.

When would it end? She'd had enough. She just wanted this blasted war to be over with. Oh, when would peace finally come?


End file.
